A homeless man enjoys home-cooked food provided by the Street Soldiers in Washington Park at the Soldiers and Sailors? Monument on Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. Community volunteers, who call themselves street soldiers, gather at the Washington Park memorial every Friday to distribute home-cooked food, clothes and other necessities to homeless people. (Massarah Mikati/Times Union) less

A homeless man enjoys home-cooked food provided by the Street Soldiers in Washington Park at the Soldiers and Sailors? Monument on Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. Community volunteers, who call themselves ... more

Street Soldiers shine lights on clothes for the homeless and others in need at Washington Park on Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. Community volunteers, who call themselves street soldiers, gather at the Washington Park memorial every Friday to distribute home-cooked food, clothes and other necessities to homeless people. (Massarah Mikati/Times Union) less

Street Soldiers shine lights on clothes for the homeless and others in need at Washington Park on Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. Community volunteers, who call themselves street soldiers, gather at the ... more

Street Soldiers set up food, clothes and other necessities for people in need at Washington Park on Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. Community volunteers, who call themselves street soldiers, gather at the Washington Park memorial every Friday to distribute home-cooked food, clothes and other necessities to homeless people. (Massarah Mikati/Times Union) less

Street Soldiers set up food, clothes and other necessities for people in need at Washington Park on Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. Community volunteers, who call themselves street soldiers, gather at the ... more

People in need line up at the Soldiers and Sailors? Monument in Washington Park on Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. Community volunteers, who call themselves street soldiers, gather at the Washington Park memorial every Friday to distribute home-cooked food, clothes and other necessities to homeless people. (Massarah Mikati/Times Union) less

People in need line up at the Soldiers and Sailors? Monument in Washington Park on Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, in Albany, N.Y. Community volunteers, who call themselves street soldiers, gather at the Washington Park ... more

Homelessness affects students even after they find housing, report finds

1 / 8

Back to Gallery

New York students who are homeless are half as likely to meet state standards in reading and math compared to their peers who have never been homeless, a new analysis published this week found.

But the effects of homelessness don't end there. Even after these students find a home, the analysis shows they are just as likely to underperform as before.

"We need to act with urgency to ensure that schools better serve these vulnerable students and provide them with the supports they need to succeed academically," said Ian Rosenblum, executive director of The Education Trust-New York, whose group published a report on the findings Monday, along with a coalition of civil rights, education, parent and business organizations.

Looking at unpublished data from the state's 2016 reading and math exams, which are taken each year by students in third through eighth grade, the analysis found that just 20 percent of homeless students were proficient in English language arts, compared to 40 percent of their peers who had never experienced homelessness. In math, just 19 percent of homeless students were proficient, compared to 42 percent of students who were never homeless.

That's perhaps not so surprising, the report notes, since students who lack permanent housing experience trauma and stress that can affect the way they perform academically.

But the results were equally as bad for students who had once been homeless but had since found permanent housing — again, just 20 percent were proficient in English language arts and 19 percent in math — suggesting supports and services may still be needed even after a student finds a home.

"This is particularly important because there are nearly as many formerly homeless assessed students as currently homeless assessed students — yet they may regularly be denied attention and support because there are no systemic requirements to address their needs as a group," the report says.

The groups are hoping that will change under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which passed in late 2015 and requires states to start collecting and reporting academic outcomes for homeless students. States have long been required to disaggregate data in this way for gender, race, ethnicity, language and disability status, among other things.

Related Stories

The idea is that such reporting allows officials to clearly identify trends or gaps, and then target supports or services where problems exist.

New York school districts reported that 148,215 students were homeless last school year, a number that is widely regarded as too low but only because identifying a student as homeless is challenging.

Under federal law, a student can be considered homeless if they are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings or similar settings, but also if they are "doubled up" with other people due to loss of housing or economic hardship, living in motels, hotels, trailer parks or campgrounds, or living in emergency or transitional shelters.

In the Capital Region, school districts in Troy, Lansingburgh, Menands and Corinth had the highest share of homeless test-takers among their student bodies in 2015-16, according to data provided to the Times Union.

In Troy, for example, 107 students or 7 percent who took the state reading test were identified as homeless. Just 4 percent of them passed, compared to 26 percent of their peers who were never homeless. Meanwhile, 212 students or 14 percent identified as having once been homeless and just 9 percent of them passed the test.

There are some outliers, the analysis notes, suggesting some districts may be using support strategies that are worth replicating statewide. The policy brief urges the state to look to these districts, and research potential best practices.

"Temporary housing shouldn't equal diminished education opportunities for tens of thousands of children, but unfortunately too often it does," said Stephen Sigmund, executive director of High Achievement New York, a group that promotes high learning standards statewide and signed on to the brief.

New York has an opportunity to go further than the federal law requires when it comes to serving homeless students, the brief notes.

As the findings published this week indicate there is still work to be done once a child finds housing, so the state should track outcomes for students who have previously experienced homelessness as well as those who are currently homeless, the brief urges.

It should also disaggregate its data by the type of homelessness a student has experienced — students in shelters, students who are doubled up, unaccompanied youth, and so on — in an attempt to drill deeper into the data.